Announcement - Easy to Join Group Support Rooms NOW! (Outdated)
Please find the current criteria to access group chatrooms Here (clickable). ❤
(Sunisshiningandsoareyou, 10/25/22)
Updated as of February 17, 2020
Hello 7Cuppers, I hope you are doing good.
Today I am here to share a GREAT news with you. I hope you will feel delighted to hear it.
We are grateful to you for being patient and supportive, sharing your concerns and suggestions openly to us. I am glad to see how you all being supportive, respectful and compassionate with each other in the room. Though, we can always improve and do better than before, right?
We heard your concerns about unable to join rooms. We brainstormed, discussed and decided that the criteria to join rooms should get lowered. But also, we wanted it to be a safe space for everyone to join and feel comfortable to share the concerns and get supported.
So, we eased the process and I believe it is way easier than before for many of us.
★ The Vision of the Change- Ensure more members can join the rooms. Their needs and concerns can get addressed and validated. And, we work towards building a strong support system for each other.
★ The New & Easy Criteria to Join Rooms are as reflected below in the table-
If you are a member and want to unlock member chat rooms;
you would need Chief Chat and Honest Voice badges to join Support Room and Member Community Room,
and, Chief Chat, Honest Voice and Strong bond 1 badges to join topic rooms like Anxiety Support, Depression Support, etc.
If you are a listener and want to access member chat rooms;
you would need Loyal Friend, First Chat and Listener Oath badges to join the Support Room and Member Community Room.
Loyal Friend, First Chat, Open Door and Listener Oath badges to join topic rooms like Anxiety Support, Depression Support, etc.
If you are a listener and want to join Listener Community Room;
you would need only Loyal Friend, First Chat, Open Door and Listener Oath badge
★ The Badges Descriptions -
★ You can take Listener Oath here (only for listeners). Please read the pledge statements carefully and post your oath in the same thread to get the respective badges!
★ Reminder- Ensure Support, Compassion, Care, Respect and Fun when you are present in the room. We need your help and support to bring the difference in someone's life. If we find unsupportive/ disrespectful behavior, your access to the rooms can be revoked. So, please ensure to follow the Chatroom Guidelines! And, if someone else is violating, remind them to follow it. We value your efforts and thoughts.
The changes will go live soon for the trial phase. We will reach out to seek your feedback and thoughts after two weeks of trial. We will discuss all the necessary improvements and changes to make our support rooms better for all. Thanks to our wonderful technical team and all the community leaders and members to make it possible for us.
I will keep you all posted when new criteria go live.
We are grateful for your efforts, patience, and support. We are progressing to build a better community for all. *Yay*
Keep up the wonderful teamwork!!
@GlenM @Heather225 @Hope
Edits-
1. Changes are not live yet! So rooms are functional as per the old criteria right now. Once the changes go live, I will inform you all.
2. Also, we launched the Text Description to explain what you need to unlock rooms. It is only supported in Web Browser right now and not applicable for 7Cups App.
Here is how it works when you log in through browser - When you log in to your account and in case you unable to join Group Support, you will see something like this -
And, when you click on it, it will show you the information on what you need to do to get rooms unlocked-
We introduced this feature for both member and listener accounts!
I prefer to share my troubles in threads more than listeners. Listeners are useless.
@DinaElwy
Ive had better luck with listeners. Often people dont answer my threads .
@SweetTortoise Listeners make me feel like I am talking with myself.
@DinaElwy well we all have our preferences, Dina. If you find forums comforting and supporting, then it is forums. If it is rooms, then it is rooms. Try all that we have here for you so you get the best support!
@ASilentObserver Listeners make me feel like I am talking with myself.
May I share my thoughts? But before that I want to iterate that I am not trying to attack nor carry any ill-intent.
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What's with the Oath pledge taking? Will it end up to a cult?
I did a quick browse through of 7Cups Values and I'm afraid that I might not meet the requirements nor be able to fulfill them. - Aint that the reason why we are here to look for support, someone to chat with, etc.?
Grow through the Path of Problems - Face problems head on to continually develop, solve the most critical ones in the way.
Grit - Drive yourself, mental agility to push past barriers.
Have fun and keep full - Enjoy the experience, take care of yourself in order to give back.
I understand that the team is trying its best to uphold and moderate the community such that it will be a better place. But like putting a kind of "expectations" wouldn't it just induce more anxiety and fear to slightly sensitive members?
I apologise if I over-think'ed certain aspects of what the team is trying to bring upon.
Anyways, signing the oath is easy matter to me. It's just within me and the keyboard actions only.
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Hey Mike I hear you. And, the oath is to ensure we understand the dynamics of a community whether it is forums, group support rooms or 1-1 and try our best to ensure we complying with our chatroom guidelines.
We are a team and always up to support each other but at the same time, we want to ensure we do not make anyone else uncomfortable. If that makes sense.
And I saw you in rooms, you already doing great with supporting others, so you fulfilling the oath, We appreciate your efforts. thank you
@ASilentObserver
hey observer, thank you for remembering me, despite the amount of members you have to work with.
also for understanding my thoughts with an open mind. I appreciate it very much.
@mikenai22 You make an excellent point. The values info actually specifies -
"If you would like to join our team as an employee or listener,"
beforing laying those out.
I think at one point in time the values were different, and were at the time the oath was posted by Laura. @RarelyCharlie I think you have pointed out some of these changes over time, can you confirm?
It seems odd to be requesting members to take an oath for things that are related to what's expected of listeners and employees, considering the role differences. @ASilentObserver maybe that aspect should be taken out, especially with it being a requirement for group support.
@AffyAvo Yes, the values were once different. Here's an archived version: Our Key Values
They were rewritten in secret based loosely on our Culture Guide. The new version was revealed on March 1st 2018 here: 7 Cups Values: Brainstorm! As you can see, the announcement tried to conceal the fact that they had just been completely rewritten, claiming instead that: "we have a core set of values that we always try to keep in mind".
I haven't tracked any other changes that there might have been.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie Thanks, the difference between what used to be vs. now is pretty big IMO.
@AffyAvo
Hi AffyAvo, regardless of applicable to members, employees or listeners. I do certainly agree to an extent of the betterment of having those values to be instilled to oneself. Its just that at difficult times, i mean in a member or a general person context, we sometimes just need an aid or support from others. And that alone already meant "that moment" we failed to already meet the mentioned values.
Anyways, It seemed like i have to obey the oath anyways. Otherwise its as good as me not joining or having to choose to leave this place. (Please dont take it as an offensive or demand from me to adjust rules/values that does not upload 7cup's posture, I'm sharing how my thoughts are)
@mikenai22
I think it was great you brought this up. Personally, I've been through a really rough time health wise lately. I'm not really pushing past barriers and having fun and staying full or whatever those value points were when seeking support with some of the crap I've been dealt.
Even the old values were based for employers and listeners, but they were easier to apply to those who were also seeking support than the new ones. An oath to follow the rules for members is one thing - both the general community guidelines and the group support rules. The values are something else though.
I made a post elsewhere with all the different oaths on 7cups that one can take (I found 7, although some are specific to members and some are specific to listeners). I had never actually paid close attention to this until you mentioned it, as I had recalled doing it, but it wasn't actually this particular one that I had done before.
@AffyAvo
I think it was great you brought this up. Personally, I've been through a really rough time health wise lately. I'm not really pushing past barriers and having fun and staying full or whatever those value points were when seeking support with some of the crap I've been dealt.
Thanks for understanding. I apologise for making you to bring up about your health concerns. Though I dont wanna compare about mine either. I see you have had tough times (of course right, how can it be easy... what crap am I talking here) and yes exactly that what I'm trying to bring across that it wont sync up with the values highlighted here, given the circumstance at that moment.
Even the old values were based for employers and listeners, but they were easier to apply to those who were also seeking support than the new ones. An oath to follow the rules for members is one thing - both the general community guidelines and the group support rules. The values are something else though.
I understand, anyways, I believe that during account signing up regardless of type, the t&c that nobody reads I believe should somewhat cover them already (Presumingly). So yea not gona harp on it, I think someone raised an even better point than me at the bottom which I felt could be better considered on.
I made a post elsewhere with all the different oaths on 7cups that one can take (I found 7, although some are specific to members and some are specific to listeners). I had never actually paid close attention to this until you mentioned it, as I had recalled doing it, but it wasn't actually this particular one that I had done before.
Nah, not really a fan of all these matters. I'm here (7cups) only for 1 main reason (and perhaps a small side one), although I doubt I found it till today or ever will. To me, the rest are just "obstacles" that I have to clear.
Awesome
@ASilentObserver As stuff was already pointed out about the Oath, I'm wondering why when it's connected to group support, we're not using the Group Support Oath?
https://www.7cups.com/forum/GroupSupport_168/InformationUpdates_822/GroupSupportMemberOath_26799/1/
The general member oath is also in need of an edit - it's encouraging members to break a rule by sharing their listener name. Ie. (hightlight is mine):
Below this post, type out your member oath. You could cut and paste it, but i feel like this takes away from it. Typing it helps you really think through what you are committing to. Next, at the bottom, sign it with your listener name like this:
@AffyAvo Thank you Affy for coming up with this.
First, I was unaware of GS Oath and we want members to be good overall for each other in the community and not in particular only for GS and also we do not have GS Oath badge yet.
Second, I agree we need updates on Oath and we working on it. Third, it might be a mistake, here listener name means your username i.e. member ones and not the one you have for your L account.
@ASilentObserver
What if you're struggling to connect to listeners in order to meet that criteria for the gorup support rooms? Are we still unable to join? I've been trying to connect with a listener a couple of times now, but it's proving to be challenging for me at this point.
@galfromaway Hey Gulf, I am sorry to hear it. Did you try the Browse Listeners Page
I hope you find one soon for seeking support as well as get specific tasks completed to get respective badges to unlock rooms. <3
@ASilentObserver
I have browsed - that's where I saw the most recent one I reached out to, whose chat request seems to have disappeared from my chat list.
Will see if I can try again sometime. A little discouraging at times.
@galfromaway I see you need to take Member Oath, Galf, to get inside rooms. Here is the thread- https://www.7cups.com/forum/NewbieHub_27/7CupsofTeaMissionCoreValues_207/MemberOathAllEncouragedtoParticipate_7447/1/
Please post your oath here and you will earn Member Oath badge and then will be able to join rooms. But, if you find trouble, then let me know in pm
@ASilentObserver
In the event that this change reverts, how can I get in touch with getting my invite to the LGBTQ room resent? I closed the notification, which was apparently the only access point for initial entry... and I would really love to be able to participate like intended.
@Blynng If you have all the listener badges mentioned in the above post-Lynn, you will be able to join the LGBTQ+ Support Room.
@ASilentObserver
hi ,what should i do so the rooms go back 💚 ?
@kji go back? Didnt understand it KJ. Could you please explain a bit.
@ASilentObserver to be clear, I understand that I don't need an invitation currently, but due to the sensitive nature of the topic, i just want to make sure I can actually participate in the areas I support regardless of how this is arranged. I couldn't find where to go after I made the mistake with the invitation... There was no email or anything to follow up so I have no idea.